MOST URGENT for 1992 Feb 26
MICHAEL SHAFTO
"The Star" Daily Column
JOHANNESBURG
Dear Mr Shafto
re: "TALE OF SPIES ON HIGH SEAS"
Your Daily Column Yesterday 25/2/92
Your very interesting anecdoet deserves some corrections
plus an illustration.
I personally knew the ship concerned (name misspelt) even
to the extent I photographed her leavinq Cape Town Docks
earlier in the War camouflaged in war paint and
displaying prominently on her poop her anti-submarine gun
that she was fated not to be able to use against the sub
that caught her by surprise. I still have the negative of
the photo from which no print has ever been made and the
picture has thus never been published.
There were other survivors - many - from the ship. besides Bill Glaus.
The ship was not sunk on the day your story says it was.
She was not torpedoed "at exactly 2300h"
She was not sunk "off the Natal coast".
She was not officially bound for Bombay,
The "Empire Mahseer" was not the third ship hit.
The event was a watershed one in South African maritime history and therefore it deserves to be fully and accurately, not incorrectly, recorded in your Daily Column This is my business.
I will be happy to write the correct story for you in a maximum of 200 words and to provide a black/white enlargement of my photo if you wish
John Marsh
